Hello, my dearest MPP friends! I trust you all had a great holiday season and are starting 2023 off on the right foot. If you’re not, change feet! Things at MPP are busy as usual, and we’re finalizing a few products which we had hoped to announce before the holiday. A little bit late, but here they are! We are also ecstatic to announce that the Model 3 Challenge schedule has been announced, and we’ll be running alongside GridLife at two of their largest events this season – Lime Rock, which was absolutely insane last year, and – for the first time ever – Laguna Seca. It will be nothing short of one of the best motorsports events on the west coast. And we have the opportunity to have a pack of Model 3’s running around out there. How epic?!
MPP Seat Mount Kits:
But first – starting with the new parts. As you may have seen on our Instagram we’ve been working on a bucket seat kit for some time that retains the very compact and lightweight Tesla power sliders. The kit is finally available for narrow bucket seats, and you can read more about it here! We’re really happy with how this product solves most of the issues that are commonly associated with installing aftermarket seats in the Model 3.
The included harness and occupancy sensor make integration a breeze, with no warnings or errors on the dash. And because we keep the factory occupancy sensor the car knows you’re in the seat, so it doesn’t try to put the car in park while you’re rolling slowly!
Regarding seating position, our design puts the seat lower than any other option on the market. This is critical when you have four inches of battery underneath you. Tesla put a ton of work into getting very low, compact seats in the Model 3 for this reason. I’m not sure about you, but for us, there’s nothing worse than feeling like you’re driving a bus on the racetrack!
Finally, another nice feature is the ability to use easy entry, so whenever the car is put in park the seat will move back, and the steering wheel will tilt up out of the way. Very convenient for bucket seats that have tall hip bolsters!
Now listen, there are some details you need to be aware of. So if you’re interested in the kit please read the product page carefully, and feel free to ask us any questions. Passenger side kits are in development, and we are also currently beta-testing a billet bracket system that will support the Recaro Sportster reclinable seats, and Bride reclinable seats will be the next version we work on after that.
Studs, Spacers, and Wheels!?
Next, we’ve been working towards offering Tesla-specific wheels for some time, and while things are still in very early stages, we wanted to share with you a wheel design we’re working on. These wheels will be offered in track and aggressive street fitments for the Model 3 at competitive prices. We have prototype wheels being made by a European wheel company with a background in professional racing and rallying, and they are a supplier for many OEMs. We’re very excited and while it’s still early days, we wanted to tease it here and hope to be able to offer the first batch before the summer!
In addition to wheels, we’re looking at ways we can simplify wheel fitment adjustment for the Model 3. So we went about designing wheel studs that will accomplish a few goals: Firstly, they can be installed easily without needing to remove the hub. This means that if you’re swapping rotors or changing brake pads, it’s only another few minutes per corner to pull in the new studs.
Secondly, the studs are designed to be able to fit under the OEM aero covers for those that sometimes revert back to OEM wheels with no spacers. Thirdly and possibly most importantly, the studs are manufactured by the best in the business. MSI make studs for Nascar and IMSA, and they are generally who we’ve always relied on for lug nuts and studs back when IMSA GS cars had 5-lugs!
To match those studs, we’ve designed the optimum wheel spacer range to go with them. First, we have the 4mm “performance rotor hub step delete” spacers. You already know all about these if you have aftermarket wheels for your Performance Model 3. The nice thing about these spacers is that they can be used temporarily if you’re planning on a rotor upgrade, and you chance to MPP rotors and remove the spacers, the offset will be nearly exactly the same.
Next, we have 9mm 13mm, and 17mm spacers. Why the strange sizes? Well, it all relates to the hub dimensions, rotor thicknesses between P/non-P, and having even steps between spacer sizes. We started with 4mm and increased in steps of 4-5mm so that no matter what you need, we have the ideal spacer for you. We worked to ensure that no matter what rotor combination was used, we would have acceptable hub engagement, and our 9mm spacer used with the OEM or MPP rotors is the absolute thinnest you can go while retaining hub-centricity. Performance rotor users need simply to also add the 4mm spacers so the 4mm+9mm can be used together until the rotors are upgraded 🙂
Our spacers also feature bolt patterns for both the Model S and Model 3, and have release recesses, making spacer removal easy if they get a bit stuck on there. Yes, you can certainly find spacers for less money that are made overseas with questionable materials. They will likely work just fine. But, we have been asked numerous times for spacers and we wanted to have a complete solution on hand, in stock, along with the support you need to get the wheel fitment you’re looking for.
Model 3 Challenge Schedule Announced!
Finally, we’re super excited to announce the schedule for the first season of the Model 3 Challenge. Our goal with this series is to allow track enthusiasts easy entry into a competitive series that puts driver against driver, starting at a grassroots level. Keeping the costs low, and the cars equal means that healthy, sustainable competition can grow – and we can all have a great time and show people that EVs aren’t boring. They aren’t something to be afraid of. And they are a car you’ll want to have one day.
That is why our events running alongside Gridlife is really the absolute perfect venue to share our passion – the events are massive and bring the entire automotive community together. So enthusiasts from all walks will be able to witness and hopefully appreciate, that electric cars can party too.
The first season will be fairly open and accessible, at the expense of car equalisation, but the aim is that in future years the cars will all have nearly the same spec so that it will truly come down to the driver.
The three official Model 3 Challenge events are taking place in the late summer and early fall, with one major East Coast event at Lime Rock and two West Coast events – one at Laguna Seca and one at Willow Springs. We can’t thank Gridlife enough for allowing us to run alongside what are undoubtedly the most epic events in North America.
Please visit the Model 3 Challenge website for more information, and to submit a pre-entry form if you’ll be joining us in 2023.
Updated GT Wing
We’re in the process of completing another batch of GT wings, and this time we’ve used DJ Engineering’s more aggressive SM132 profile, for those that want more downforce out of a single-element wing. The wing has a little bit more drag when fully trimmed out, but we’ve learned that most users don’t care about that, they care about downforce. Silly us!
Our learnings from our bonded-in trunk mount supports also allowed us to make the trunk mount smaller and lighter, and the entire wing kit is designed to be as light weight as possible. These parts are going through final anodizing now and will be shipping very soon!
Wrapping Up
That’s about all we’ve got for now, but stay tuned as we have some more exciting news coming in the coming months. Thanks as always for your continued support and enthusiasm. The passion you have for these cars is a constant source of inspiration that motivates us to keep pushing forward and really focusing all of our energy on developing the best parts we can. So thank you! Let’s go 2023!
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